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chess noob Quick Wins! is a series of short videos, to demonstrate very quick wins! As a beginner, you become aware of the Scholar’s Mate and the Fool’s Mate, but neither of these show up in real games. However, there are tricky quick checkmates and wins that occur, even at the intermediate level of chess.

Today’s game is a rather unusual 7-move checkmate in the Center Game (1. e4 e5 2. d4)! It was sent in by one of my subscribers who is a fellow member of the Chess Boot Camp club and is a game of 10-min rapid on Lichess.

This game shows several principles:

• don’t bring your queen out early
• don’t avoid capturing offered material for no reason
• don’t launch an attack with your queen without support from other pieces
• don’t blitz out moves without calculating the consequences

My sub with the White pieces played the Center game and Black curiously brought out their queen to defend the pawn on e5 (2… Qf6) rather than simply accepting the exchange. Taking the exchange is fine for Black as after Black captures back the pawn with queen, Black gets to develop their knight with tempo (2… exd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6).

White chooses to develop their bishop with tempo (4. Bg5), which comes with a hidden mate threat as both the queen and bishop look at the d8 square.

Black misses this tactic and attempts to take their queen on the attack. This of course, doesn’t work and while Black has notionally managed to capture both of White’s central pawns on move 6, they hand mate with the White queen taking over the Black queen’s square! Brutal, and GG!

Game on Lichess: https://lichess.org/F4zr6nKn

[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/F4zr6nKn"]
[Date "2023.05.14"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Hejhog"]
[Black "otirotitan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2023.05.14"]
[UTCTime "12:30:43"]
[WhiteElo "1497"]
[BlackElo "1493"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+6"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-6"]
[TimeControl "600+0"]
[ECO "C20"]
[Opening "Center Game"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/19835002.c1c30921.50x50o.048c8be0c28b@2x.png"]
[WhiteCountry "159"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://adventuresofachessnoob.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/lichess.png"]
[BlackCountry "163"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 {[%clk 0:10:00]} 1... e5 {[%clk 0:10:00]} 2. d4 {[%clk 0:09:57] Center
Game - uncommon and spicy $1 [0.00]} 2... Qf6 $2 {[%clk 0:09:52][%c_arrow
e5d4;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;d4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d4;persistent;false][%c_effect
f6;square;f6;type;Mistake;persistent;true] Black immediately makes a mistake
[+1.2]. Opening principle - there is no reason not to take the pawn as White can
only capture back only with queen, and then the simple developing move Nc6 wins
tempo.} 3. Nf3 {[%clk 0:09:49]} 3... d6 $6 {[%clk 0:09:46][%c_effect
d6;square;d6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e5d4;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;d4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d4;persistent;false] Black, however,
doubles down on a bad idea [+1.6]} 4. Bg5 {[%clk 0:09:42]} 4... Qg6 {[%clk
0:09:43]} 5. dxe5 {[%clk 0:09:32][%c_arrow
d1d8;keyPressed;shift;from;d1;opacity;0.8;to;d8;persistent;false,g5d8;keyPressed;shift;from;g5;opacity;0.8;to;d8;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d8;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;d8;persistent;false,d6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d6;persistent;false]
Note: with the d-file semi-open, the d-pawn is actually pinned to the d8 square
as the bishop and queen have an unusual mating attack $1} 5... Qxe4+ $2 {[%clk
0:09:41][%c_effect e4;square;e4;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
b8c6;keyPressed;none;from;b8;opacity;0.8;to;c6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c6;persistent;false] A mistake [+2.8]. The
queen cannot attack alone. Black needs to develop.} 6. Be2 {[%clk 0:09:29]} 6...
dxe5 $4 {[%clk 0:09:35][%c_effect e5;square;e5;type;Blunder;persistent;true]
Unfortunately, Black misses the checkmate threat...} 7. Qd8# {[%clk
0:09:25][%c_effect e1;square;e1;type;Winner,e8;square;e8;type;CheckmateBlack]
White wins by checkmate.} 1-0